Monday, March 30, 2009

Something Scratchy This Way Comes

Thank you for all your kind words on my last post. It's so nice to know I have so many friends here who care.

There's something a little more lighthearted that I've been wanting to tell you about. Shortly after we bought our condo, Ibis decided to insulate the ceiling and some of the walls with two-inch think foam. We glued pieces directly to the concrete and painted the walls to match. Unless you're looking, you can't really tell, and it's kept it a lot cooler in here - kind of like sodas inside a styrofoam cooler.

Aside from the occasional nick on the wall, we haven't had any problems. I had noticed that the geckos like to hide in the cracks between the foam and the edge of the wall (on the ceiling) but didn't think much of it. Well, a couple months ago we started hearing scratching all over the ceiling BETWEEN the foam and the concrete. We get a lot of bugs in here at night - which is when the scratching is most noticeable - so for a long time I just thought it was the winged creatures tap-tap-tapping against the foam near the lights.

Then I noticed it coming from the corner near the bathroom, right over my desk. It sounds like they're running back and forth, almost as if they've carved tunnels inthe foam. There's one thin strip of foam - maybe three inches wide - that runs directly over my head and I've become convinced that it's going to crash down on top of me and I'll have millions of geckos swarming all over me. I'm not afraid of geckos (remember when I chopped off one's tail?) but the thought of their babies, eggs, poop, and whatever else is up there raining down on my really freaks me out! Ugh!

I made Ibis push on the foam last week to see what would happen, but no geckos went running for their lives. Maybe they were out hunting insects. He doesn't think anything is going to happen, but I live in fear of the day that twelve feet of styrofoam comes crashing down on my head, bringing a colony of geckos with it.

Okay, sorry to do this but I have to ask - It wouldn't be roaches, would it?

Nothing freaky here at the moment, but when a cane spider gets in, I don't sleep well. They are really hard to catch and are nocturnal, so once I see one, I don't sleep until husband catches it. Makes my skin crawl just to think about it.

OMG, why do you people have to talk about spiders.......(shutters)Vile little creatures.

The worse place I had was the house in Spring Lake. It was balloon construction. So an animal that got into the house could go anywhere. I had several colonies of squirrels and other assorted rodents. Often at night I would hear battles going off in the walls. I am so glad I didn't have a shotgun handy as many times I would have blasted through the roof to get rid of them because they used to keep Max and I up all night.

My apartment is filed with all sorts of strange noises, voices, and movement caught in just the corner of my eye. I chalk it up to both apartment living and old building moans and squeaks. But it freaks me out sometimes, I must say!

A little about me

I "roughed it" in Zihuatanejo, Mexico for three years with my (now ex) husband while we waited for his US visa. Well, we didn't really rough it -- we had running water & glass in the windows, but it was really hot.

He was denied in September 2009 & I returned to Michigan in February 2010, and while our story ended there, mine continues at Hoosblog and my dog, Owen, is documenting his life on Instagram.

I'm no longer posting to this blog, but I'm leaving it online so you can read about our journey. Check out the links under Posts That Explain Things to get the basics, or the tags at the bottom for specific categories.